Stocks fell on Thursday, further dampening investor hopes for a Santa Claus rally this year. Historically, a weak beginning to the year hasn't been a good sign for stocks.

Wall Street remains optimistic. The consensus price target for the S&P 500 in 2025 is 6715, 14% higher than where the blue-chip barometer ended in 2024.

Santa Claus is leaving investors in the lurch once again in 2024 as U.S. stocks have struggled during the typically bullish home stretch of the year.

Yes. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will both operate on half-day schedules, closing at 1 p.m., while bond markets will shut down at 2 p.m., and major U.S. financial markets will stay closed until Thursday’s normal trading session.

Traders had hoped a banner year for the S&P 500 would end in a "Santa Claus Rally"—a run-up commonly seen over the last five trading days of a year and the first two of the next. While Thursday and Friday trading could bring a turnaround,

The odds of a rising stock market are not significantly different whether or not there is a Santa Claus rally. The absence of a “Santa Claus rally” does not doom the U.S. stock market in 2025. That period from Christmas through the second trading day of January marks the traditional definition of the Santa Claus rally.

While overall trading volumes were light on Monday, stocks did gain a little ground as we head into the final trading days of the year.

Santa might have a lump of coal for Wall Street this year. Stocks typically enjoy a so-called Santa Claus Rally in the period spanning the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the next.

The so-called Santa Claus rally could get off to a late start this year. But better late than never. A team of strategists at Ned Davis Research pointed out that stocks have struggled ahead of the start of the “Santa Claus rally” period, which begins on Tuesday.

Some of the biggest winners were mega-cap tech stocks, with Tesla up by 6% while Broadcom, Netflix, and Amazon each gained about 2%.